Ski Team Gives Up Request For Practice On Starke Lake

OCOEE — An amateur water skiing team has dropped a request to make a public lake in Ocoee its practice site after residents on and near the lake told city officials they opposed the idea.

The Diamond Water Ski Show Team had asked to use a portion of Starke Lake 30 to 32 weekends a year to rehearse the stunts and shows they perform throughout Florida. The nonprofit group said it would need about 200 feet of shoreline and permission to place a jumping ramp and a floating dock in the 203-acre lake that sits in the middle of the city.

But more than 50 residents turned out for a meeting last week to say the lake was already too crowded and that city commissioners shouldn't set aside a part of it for use by a private organization. They also worried about the noise and activity the team and its 60-plus members might create.

Two commissioners last week seemed willing to consider the team's request, while two others were adamantly opposed. Ocoee's fifth commissioner was not at the meeting.

Because the meeting was simply a public forum, commissioners took no action on the request.

Nevertheless, ski team President Darrell Spell said his group would not wait for a formal vote from the city officials, but would begin to look elsewhere.

The team, he said, does not want to cause any ill will.

''We don't want to go somewhere and upset the community,'' he said. ''So no, we don't have plans to go back to Ocoee.''